Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Today's Teamster News 02.24.15

TeamstersTeamsters Protest Labatt Beer At Buffalo Pond Hockey Tournament teamster.org ...At the Labatt Blue Pond Hockey tournament this weekend, Teamster members distributed information to fans about Heidelberg Distributing’s abusive behavior towards its drivers and warehouse workers. Heidelberg distributes Labatt Beer products in Ohio...Unionized UC Berkeley Workers Rally Against New Pay Calculations Daily Californian ...Teamsters Local 2010 said in a press release that the goals of this rally were not only to educate the public on the employees’ grievances with the UC system but also to highlight the pay that UC employees receive. According to a recent Economic Policy Institute study cited in the press release, 80 percent of the union’s members are not paid enough to live in the cities in which their campuses reside...Sysco Not In Talks To Settle U.S. Lawsuit To Stop Merger Reuters ...Sysco Corp is not holding settlement talks with the U.S. government to resolve a lawsuit aimed at stopping a $3.5 billion merger of the food distributor and its largest rival, a lawyer for Sysco said on Friday...TradeMedicines forecast to cost taxpayers millions more in secret TPP trade deal Guardian ...Medicines will cost Australian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more each year if measures in a leaked draft of the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement are implemented, a new report says...Japan's Amari: Japan-U.S. TPP talks are behind schedule Reuters …Chief negotiators for the TPP deal will meet in Hawaii for talks in the second week of March, the U.S. trade office said on Friday, a move which could delay a final agreement on the pact…Froman asks county officials to back Obama trade policies AgriPulse ...U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman today called on county government officials from across the country to support President Obama's request for trade promotion authority and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal...State BattlesScott Walker Pushes ALEC 'Right to Work' Bill, Divide and Conquer Comes Full Circle Huffington Post ...Wisconsin GOP leaders announced they would have an "extraordinary session" to ram through union-busting "right to work" legislation. CMD/PRwatch quickly noted that the bill is taken almost word-for-word from the Koch corporate bill mill known as the American Legislative Exchange Council known as "ALEC."...Bell Right-To-Work Amendment Passes Senate Augusta Free Press ...Current law provides that a citizen cannot be denied the employment or continuation of employment for failing to join a union or other labor organization. This amendment, sponsored by Delegate Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, would make Virginia’s Right to Work law more permanent by adding it to the constitution...Walker’s Anti-Union Law Has Labor Reeling In Wisconsin Washington Post ...Walker had vowed that union power would shrink, workers would be judged on their merits, and local governments would save money. Unions had warned that workers would lose benefits and be forced to take on second jobs or find new careers. Many of those changes came to pass, but the once-thriving ­public-sector unions were not just shrunken — they were crippled...House set to vote on liquor privatization bill despite concerns that members may not know what's in it PennLive ...In its first significant piece of business in the 2015-16 legislative session, the state House of Representatives is poised to vote this week on a bill that would get the state out of the liquor business. But some wonder how many legislators casting votes really know what the bill would do...Indiana State AFL-CIO President Reacts to House Approval of Common Construction Wage Repeal Indiana State AFL-CIO ..."With today’s vote in the House of Representatives, the Republican supermajority has attacked the wages of working Hoosiers, a successful private sector business model and the autonomy of local governments...."War on WorkersOil, Ethanol Trains Will Derail 10 Times A Year For 2 Decades, Federal Government Estimates The Oregonian ...The federal government predicts trains hauling crude oil or ethanol will derail an average of 10 times a year during the next two decades, causing more than $4 billion in damage and possibly killing hundreds of people if an accident happens in a densely populated part of the U.S...In service sector, no rest for the working New York Times ...Employees are literally losing sleep as restaurants, retailers and many other businesses shrink the intervals between shifts and rely on smaller, leaner staffs to shave costs. These scheduling practices can take a toll on employees who have to squeeze commuting, family duties and sleep into fewer hours between shifts. The growing practice of the same workers closing the doors at night and returning to open them in the morning even has its own name: "clopening."...Seattle, Tacoma, other ports busy again after tentative labor deal Associated Press ...Nearly all West Coast seaports began the work week with crews hustling to load and unload cargo ships that were held up amid a months-long dispute over a new contract for dockworkers...Look who's living on the financial edge CNBC …24 percent of Americans have more credit card debt than emergency savings, and 13 percent are not much better off—they don't have credit card debt but they don't have emergency savings either. Put another way, more than a third of Americans are living at risk of a financial crisis…Worker killed in accident at Alcoa plant Associated Press … An Alcoa plant employee was killed about 6:30 p.m. Monday in what's being termed an "accident" at the Tennessee Operations North Plant, according to an Alcoa spokeswoman...Why We're All Becoming Independent Contractors (opinion) Huffington Post ...The rise of "independent contractors" is the most significant legal trend in the American workforce -- contributing directly to low pay, irregular hours, and job insecurity...Knowledge Isn’t Power (opinion) New York Times ...We could levy higher taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and invest the proceeds in programs that help working families. We could raise the minimum wage and make it easier for workers to organize. It’s not hard to imagine a truly serious effort to make America less unequal...Drones Are The New Buzz In Ag Business Yakima Herald Republic ...Farmers already are using drones in the area and throughout the nation, albeit by stretching the limits of rapidly changing regulations. They purchase the planes online. Some allow users to control them with a smartphone application, turning their screen into a virtual cockpit...MiscellaneousCrackdown On Drones Goes Local USA Today ...Since 2012, 15 states have enacted laws restricting drones in some way, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which tracks state laws. And if New York City Council Member Dan Garodnick gets his way, drones will be banned in the Big Apple, except for police with a warrant, as soon as this year...